Mannerist Groupings

Nicolò dell'Abate
Courtiers attending a Stag Hunt
ca. 1560
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

El Greco
Adoration of the Shepherds
ca. 1596-1600
oil on canvas
(fragment of altarpiece installation)
Romanian National Museum of Art, Bucharest

Antonio Campi
Christ carrying the Cross
ca. 1560-70
oil on panel
Galleria Sabauda, Turin

Anonymous Tuscan Artist
Incredulity of Thomas
ca. 1590
oil on panel
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

Giorgio Ghisi after Giulio Romano
Cupid and Psyche
ca. 1573-74
engraving
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Orazio Farinati after Paolo Farinati
Virgin and Child with young St John the Baptist
ca. 1580
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Raphael Sadeler after Nicolas de Hoey
Sodomites stricken Blind
1583
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Juan de Juanes
Dead Christ supported by Angels
ca. 1570-75
oil on panel
Dallas Museum of Art

Christoph Schwarz
St Nicholas of Tolentino and St Sebastian
ca. 1580
oil on panel
Deutsche Barockgalerie, Augsburg

Domenico Tibaldi after Agostino Carracci
The Transfiguration
ca. 1582
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Michiel Coxie
Martyrdom of St George
ca. 1550
oil on panel
(altarpiece fragment)
Royal Museum of Fine Arts
Antwerp

Palma il Giovane
Study for Crucifixion
ca. 1590
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Girolamo Siciolante
Crucifixion with the Virgin
and St John the Evangelist
ca. 1573
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Marten de Vos the Elder
Beheading of St John the Baptist
1574
oil on panel
(altarpiece fragment)
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Niccolò Vicentino after Parmigianino
Sheet of Studies
ca. 1530-40
chiaroscuro woodcut
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Anonymous Fontainebleau School Artist
Woman choosing between Young Man and Old Man
(commedia dell'arte figures)
ca. 1575
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes

Chorus of Persian Elders:  What then, lord Darius?  To what conclusion to your words lead?  After this, how can we, the Persian people, get the best possible outcome for the future?

Ghost of Darius:  By not invading the land of the Greeks, not even with a Median army still greater than before!  Their country itself fights as their ally. 

Chorus:  How to you mean?  In what way does it fight as their ally?

Ghost:  By starving to death a multitude that is too vastly numerous.

Chorus:  Well, we'll raise a picked, well-equipped expedition.

Ghost:  No, not even the army that has now been left in the land of Greece will gain a safe return home. 

Chorus:  What do you mean?  Hasn't the whole of the Eastern army crossed back from Europe over the strait of Helle? 

Ghost:  Few out of many, if one is to place any credence in the oracles of the gods, looking at what has now happened – for oracles are not fulfilled by halves.  If that is indeed so, Xerxes, seduced by vain hopes, has left behind a large, select portion of his army.  They remain where the Asopus waters the plain with its stream, bringing welcome enrichment to the soil of the Boeotians.  There the destiny awaits them of suffering a crowning catastrophe, in requital for their outrageous actions and their godless arrogance.  When they came to the land of Greece, they did not scruple to plunder the images of the gods and set fire to temples: altars have vanished, and the abodes of deities have been ruined, uprooted, wrenched from their foundations.  Because of this evil they have done, they are suffering evil to match it in full measure, and have still to suffer more: the fountain of suffering has not stopped flowing – more of it is still gushing forth, so great will be the clotted libation of slain men's blood on the soil of the Plataeans, shed by the Dorian spear.  The heaps of corpses will voicelessly proclaim to the eyes of men, even to the third generation, that one who is a mortal should not think arrogant thoughts: outrage has blossomed, and has produced a crop of ruin, from which it is reaping a harvest of universal sorrow.     

– Aeschylus, from Persians (472 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)